Definition of a Tourist

Just what is a tourist anyway? Someone who pulls over at all the widely advertised places, buys souvenirs, takes photos and heads off to the next spot?

Or someone who pulls over at interesting sounding places (to them, at least) just for the heck of it?

If you answered yes to both, you're on my team. By those definitions, Evan and I are becoming gold-standard tourists.

Yesterday we left Billings, headed to Belvidere, SD, a spot about in the middle of the state. But before we could settle into our cabin we had places to go, things to see, stuff to buy. After all, South Dakota is the Mt. Rushmore state. Evan is realizing how little American history he knows so he's an enthusiastic looker at interpretive signs.

But before we got to the stone-faced presidents, we pulled over at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Memorial. It's right off I-90 in Montana, and Custer's Last Stand occurred this same week in 1876, on June 25. It was pretty sobering to look over the fields of waving prarie grass and wildflowers and imagine them with dead bodies strewn across their expanse.

This is a sculpture at the part of the memorial that recognizes the Indians who died there.

Personally, I've always felt that Custer got what he deserved, and I agree with the words of Chief Sitting Bull, "Our homes were attacked and what would you do if your home was attacked? You would defend it." Politics aside, two points if you can guess which part of the scene was most poignant to me?

Most notable moment of the day (not captured on camera because it happened so fast)...still in MT, gazing upon a lovey cattle pasture, looking toward a small stand of trees nestled at the bottom of a low hill. A large, brown creature was heading across the pasture, and it was not a cow, it was a bear!! That is a big deal for someone who's only seen bears in zoos and Yellowstone, which is almost the same thing.

As we cruised toward Mt. Rushmore, Evan reminded me that he hates crowds. What did we do, raise a tribe of hermits? Each of our boys is like that. Oh, wait...so are Goddy and I. We agreed to persevere despite the crowds and go to the gift shop first. That way you forget the feeding frenzy for souvenirs when you get to the grandeur of what you actually came to see. It worked for us and we were suitably awed by the monument.



And yes, we heeded the siren call of Wall Drug Store and went in. Our five minutes of experiencing a travelers icon was actually quite fun.

So if the essence of road trips is to get to the end of the day and have moments to savor, then I'd say we're doing ok so far.

The next post will tell you about going the not-so-touristy-tourist route.